Best Business Photos of 2012

Dec. 30, 2012 7:03 p.m. ET

A tourist swam near the stricken cruise liner Costa Concordia at Giglio Island off the coast of Tuscany, Italy, on April 9. The cruise liner hit underwater rocks Jan. 13 and foundered; at least 30 people died.Cruise-Line Official Questioned About DisasterFrancesca Baldi/European Pressphoto Agency…

American Airlines pilots picketed outside a terminal at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport in Texas on Oct. 31. In early November, after three months with no contract, the two sides reached a deal.American Air, Pilots Union Agree on Terms of New ContractL.M. Otero/Associated Press…

A sign at Hostess Brands' Dolly Madison plant in Columbus, Ind., bore "Closed" wording on Nov. 16, after Hostess said it would close all its plants and file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.Twinkie Maker Hostess to CloseThe Republic/Associated Press…

Security guards surveyed a burned office at the Maruti Suzuki Production Facility in Manesar, India, on July 19. Workers demanding higher wages started a fire at the plant; a manager was killed and dozens were injured.Riot Hits Big India Auto MakerManan VatsyayanaAFP/Getty Images…

Pedestrians walked past a sign outside the offices of law firm Dewey & LeBoeuf in New York in May. The embattled New York firm filed for bankruptcy protection in May, in one of the largest law-firm failures in U.S. history.Storied Law Firm Dewey Files Chapter 11Lucas Jackson/Reuters…

A new home stood next to an undeveloped lot at a Toll Brothers development in South Barrington, Ill., in November. The U.S. housing market, which plunged the economy into recession five years ago, is now seen as a key economic driver.Now, Homes Fuel EconomyDaniel Acker/Bloomberg…

Joann Thompson stood in a trailer filled with salvaged furniture and other items from her interior decorating business in Ocean City, N.J., in mid-November.Three Weeks After Sandy, Setbacks for Small FirmsRyan Collerd for The Wall Street Journal…

A man showed off his new iPhone 5 at an Apple store in New York City on Sept. 21, the day the latest model of Apple's iconic gadget went on sale.
Wang Lei/Xinhua/Zuma Press…

Research In Motion Chief Executive Officer Thorsten Heins displayed a prototype of the BlackBerry 10 smartphone in Orlando, Fla., on May 1. For the struggling company, the new device alone wasn't enough to allay investor concerns in 2012.New RIM Fears Cut Stock by 23% David Manning/Reuters…

A graffiti-like stencil of the face of Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg spots a wall on the company's Silicon Valley campus, which it moved to in December 2011.Facebook From the Inside OutAlison Yin for The Wall Street Journal…

Michael Dubin, founder of the Dollar Shave Club, posed for a portrait in the company's shipping warehouse in Gardena, Calif.A David and Gillette StoryDan Krauss for The Wall Street Journal…

Fab.com CEO Jason Goldberg at the company's offices in New York City in November. In less than two years, design retailer Fab.com has become an e-commerce star.Fab.com: Building a $700 Million Novelty ShopRamsay de Give for The Wall Street Journal…

Workers watched as the forward section of the aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth was moved onto a barge at a naval base in Portsmouth, Enland, in May.
Luke MacGregor/Reuters…

An image released by the Bangladesh labor unions on Nov. 27 showed Kalpona Akter, the head of one union, with a garment bearing a Wal-Mart brand logo at the factory building in Dhaka, Bangladesh, where more than 100 garment workers died in a fire.
BGIWF/BCWS/AFP/Getty Images…

A worker did a final inspection on a Porsche at the company's plant in Leipzig, Germany, in June, the same month the 500,000th Porsche—a Cayenne S sport-utility vehicle—was finished.Porsche Reaches Half-Million Mark at LeipzigPeter Endig/Zuma Press…